Training for-

• Paso Harvest Marathon 13.1
• Golden Gate Half

It’s the final countdown!  Come on, sing it with me!    Sorry, I think the lack of sleep is making me slap happy.  😛     I’m still not sleeping but I’m also tired of whining about it.   It is what it is so I am trying to just find the shiny and keep moving on.

I actually ran all the miles planned this week and almost pulled off some of the paces.  Who am I?!?     I started off the week by taking some rest days.  It’s how being told to rest by someone else takes some of guilt away.  I think my brain needed that after the last few weeks.

Monday- Yoga  What?!?  I used an app on my phone and did a beginners workout just to try to loosen up and relax a little.   I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before so I was dragging.

Tuesday- Rest  This day was a Monday Redux.  Seriously, it was rough at work.  I was so glad I didn’t have to run.

Wednesday- 4 miles After a few days off, I was feeling nervous like I forgot how to run.  As you can read here– the run was freakin’ awesome!



Thursday-3.5 miles  Interval ouch.  The workout called for 6×400 with warm up and cool down.  Normally I love 400’s but I was so damn tired and I knew I would be chasing the sunset.    I had an option of rest or a light jog between the 400’s and I chose the rest.  Even with that, the intervals kicked my ass.  My paces were 7:58, 7:53, 8:41, 8:25, 7:56, 8:33.  Not sure what happened with that third one.     I was whipped at the end.  I could not have run another one if I tried.   I was proud that I finished the work out but damn that was hard.

Friday- Rest  Oh crap, I think I broke myself.  I was limping all day and my left knee and shin were pissed.  I was kind of freaking out.  I had 12 miles on the plan the next day, what do I do?!?!    Does it really hurt or am I just being a baby?  I have a mental block with 12 mile runs.  Give me 11 or 13 or 15 and I look forward to them after marathon training, but 12?  I hate them for some reason.   Was I just whining?  I texted Coach Jenny for her opinion and she agreed I should push my run back to Sunday and rest.

Saturday- Rest I attempted to catch up on sleep.  Did I mention Thursday night was another 4 hours if I was lucky?  Then I ran a few errands and read a book-Run!.  I love reading Dean Karnazes’ books.  Even if they make me think crazy thoughts.   I signed up for my first marathon 2 months after reading Ultramarathon Man.  What now?

Sunday- 12 miles  Of course, when my alarm went off I was in the most comfortable moment of sleep that I had had all week.   I hit snooze for 40 minutes before dragging myself out of bed for my run.  My plan called for 6 miles @ 12:00, 5@ 9:30 and the last @ 9:00.   My leg felt a little better but I was planning on taking it easy and keeping an eye on how it felt.  I even had my mom on alert in case I needed a pick up.

I kept it nice and easy in the beginning and just focused on my leg.   Mile 1 was super slow and I managed to keep the bridge mile at 10:00 which is fairly calm considering I usually bolt across it.   At the halfway point I was actually right on pace and I felt ok so I tried to pick up the pace a bit.   I couldn’t get to 9:30 though.  Miles 7, 8, and 9 clocked in at 10:00.  I was still pretty stoked about that though so I was hoping I could keep it up.  Then I slammed right into a wall.  Miles 10 and 11 were 11:18 and 10:57.  Oops.  I didn’t necessarily feel tired but I could not move any faster.  I took so many walk breaks.  I had already run more miles than I thought I was going to pull off so I decided not to stress about the pace.    That said, I was so glad to see my watch hit 12.   Success!

19.5 miles- an improvement over the last few weeks!  Woo hoo!   And now it’s on to race week #1!  Eeek!

How was your week?

I whined a little didn’t I? Oops.

What are you reading?

 

 

 

• Run!